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Saturday, December 1, 2012

I have been very busy lately and it is becoming hard to write regular posts on the blog. It will be even more challenging when a new member will arrive in our family within next few months. But as of now I am enjoying amazing weather in UAE and can't wait to share my most favourite post with you all. I have been collecting data about this topic since long time and was waiting long to take photos of these beautiful birds found in such a small desert country.

It is definitely a great co-incidence to publish Birds In UAE before UAE's National Day! It's my personal tribute to natural beauty of UAE; my second home.

There are scientific and statistical data available on internet for Birds in UAE, if anybody is interested. (Also see at the end of article my note about where to find more about birds in UAE.)Migratory Birds:Firstly we all need to keep in mind the very central location of UAE. When winter begins in the Northern Hemisphere, many migratory birds from Europe and North Asia take their stop in UAE while migrating to Africa and southern parts. Why they choose UAE? Answer to that is, while they pass the region, it's winter in UAE so weather is pleasant for them. UAE is blessed with numerouse marshes and mangroves; to name few Ras Al Khor, Eastern Mangrove in Abu Dhabi, Khor Al Kalba etc. Very convenient location of this tip of arabian peninsula and abundantly available food supply for these birds here (fish and biodiverse species in mangroves) is the reason why this region is popular amongst migratory birds. We get to see migratory birds mainly in marshes, mangroves, sea shores and sometimes in parks.

Native Birds:
Apart from these migratory birds there are local birds, who are thriving in this very hot and humid condition since ages. We get to see these birds all over near the cost and also in dessert.

Kalbanese Kingfisher:
The Kalba Collared Kingfisher, also called the Kalbaensis, the UAE’s only kingfisher, is found in Khor Kalba. It is a blue green and white bird is considered one of the rarest in the world and has lived in isolation from other kingfisher species found in South and East Asia. It often picks up crabs from ground.
Grey Frankolin or Grey Partridge:

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Grey Frankolin or Grey Partridge

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Grey Frankolin or Grey Partridge

Endangered Birds:Houbara/MacQueen Bustard:
This used to be very popular bird in Arabia where it used to be hunted with the help of trained Falcons till 1990s. The trend has stopped now because this species has become extinct in UAE nature. Houbara Bustard is endangered in UAE.
It is light sandy brown and white bird with large-body, long legs and a slender neck. There is bib-like tuft of feathers over the breast. When performing spectacular breeding dance in front of female, male fluffs the feathers in such a way to make feather basket around his face.

In 1995 late HH Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan set up Emirates Center for Wild life propogation in Morrocco to protect and conserve Houbara Bustard in North Africa.
In 2006 International Fund for Houbara Conservation is set up in Western Region of Abu Dhabi. Under this conservation program, the centers are established for captive breeding of the birds in UAE, Morocco, Kazakistan and China. In 2011 alone IFHC bred 20,475 Asian and North African houbara in its centres. Out of which in UAE, there were 2,727 Asian houbara chicks born in captivity with an encouraging 53 per cent survival rate.
In the same time, the number of houbara released into the wild was a record 13,400, reaching the milestone figure of 50,000 since the houbara release programme began in 1998 with just two birds released in North Africa. Some 1,350 of them were released in 10 different locations across the UAE.

Newly Introduced Resident Birds:

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Some birds came from somewhere else and setteled here permanently. These campartively newly settled birds in this region are multiplying quickly as they live in newly created landscaped habitat in UAE, where they get enough food and water supply even in summer. I have seen many birds drinking water from water sprinkleres used for landscaping and same landscape (trees, flora, fauna) provide them food. These birds are found in all sort of residential areas and parks in UAE.

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Hi Guys,
Today I am very happy to get rid of my unwanted stuff for very good cause
and couldn't wait to share with you all!
As you know we are on a mission to find out different ways to reuse, reduce
& recycle unwanted things, which in turn solves the waste problem. I have
discussed many ways to do this in numerous previous posts on this blog. Right
from innovative, artistic reuse of waste to flea market and charities.
I have used many different charities to give away my unwanted stuff in last
6 years in Dubai.
This time I came across 'Aid In Motion', Volunteer in Dubai Initiative that
collects unwanted items for the less fortunate.
You can find out more about this charity on http://www.volunteerindubai.com/projects/aid-in-motion.
Or you can like their facebook page, to know any new update regarding their
charity opportunities, www.facebook.com/aidinmotion You can also
call on 04 870 6535 and request them to arrange pick up for your unwanted
items.
Aid in Motion is project launched by of Volunteer in Dubai. They have
fabulous group of volunteers known as "Area Collection
Representatives" to collect your unwanted stuff in good condition like
clothes, books, household items. The list of items which they accept for charity
is on their page.
After they collect your items, they sort out items and distribute to labors
living in labor camps in Dubai and Sharjah. Sometimes they send these items to
needy people in less privileged countries like Uganda, Nepal. And sometimes
they sell these items in second hand flea market and use the money to do
specific help to less fortunate needy individuals in Dubai. Just recently they
sold items in flea market and bought a wheel chair for someone who was in need
of it, but could not afford it.

When I saw their recent FB status, I called up their call center and
requested to arrange pick up. I had around 30 unwanted books in very good
condition, a bag of good condition clothes (mostly formal clothes of my husband
and me) and medicines, which are not expired yet along with old spectacles.
One of their volunteer Salman, from my neighborhood contacted me for pick
up. After we co-ordinated, he picked up my 3 bags of unwanted stuff from my
place. I am sure my unwanted stuff will be given to someone who needs it and
can't afford it. Or if they sell these items, the earnings will be used for a noble
help. To find that out, I would definitely check on their FB page, what is the
next help/charity they are doing?
Thank you Aid In Motion and Volunteer in Dubai to let me take part in your
charity! I Hope Dubai-based readers of my blog also would contact Aid In Motion to
give away their unwanted stuff to the less fortunate!

Friday, June 1, 2012

Hi peeps, as you know since long time I am on mission to find out diffrent ways to recycle/reuse unwanted stuff at my home. The ultimate goal is to divert our waste from landfill! And not only me, but many people living in UAE face same situation. Some of my friends told me that while goining to vacation in their homecountry they carry their unwanted luggage (which is in good condition) like clothes, electronics, children toys etc and give away to needy poeple. I also know many people who go to labour camps in UAE and give away their unwanted stuff. But you can't give away ladies purses and shoes in these labour camps!

There are many charities in UAE where you can give away all your stuff right from clothes, books to medicines, spectacles. I have discussed these charities in UAE in older posts.
If one has enough time and creativity, reusing unwanted stuff to create something useful is also a very good idea, I have dedicated a lengthy post for this subject. Would love to let you know more, as I find anything new.
You find recylers for papers, plastic waste in UAE (find locations in past post). But we can not really throw readable books to these recycler, I would say it's insane and of course non-sustainable. When it could be reused, then there is no point in wasting resources to recycle it.
The yard sales concept it not much matured in UAE yet. Also there are also not big permanent second hand marketshere in UAE, like chor bazars India .

Many people use sites like souq.com, dubizzle.com or newpaper classified to resell their unwanted stuff in UAE. There are others like Take my junk, to help us clear our house from unwanted stuff.
But just recently I found out a very funfilled as well as sustainable way to recycle my unwanted good stuff, Second hand Flea market!

"One man's waste is other man's treasure" I really like this sentence, and how it is so true we experienced in this flea market. Many people who want to buy some stuff at cheap, they visit this very popular Dubai Flea market, which is organized every month by Green Spot Entertainment. It is organised in Al Safa park and Uptown Mirdiff. Checkout their website, http://www.dubai-fleamarket.com/when_and_where.aspx

If you want to sell items they provide you a stall (tables, chairs) at a cost. It's not cheap, but if you have bulk things in good condition to get rid off, it's good. You not only get back your cost of setting up stall but you also earn money!

Many times it happens that people are not ready to give away their unwanted stuff like that, for which they paid a good amount of money. Looking at shopping tempatations in Dubai, we all face this situation, where we bought some expensive high end/branded stuff may be clothes, which are in very good condition but are not fitting now. As we can't let it go like that, we keep it and increase our luggage. But when we can sell these kind of unwanted stuff which is in good condition, we don't feel that bad. And good thing is somebody else, who can't afford to spend high price for these things, can have it in cheap.

Not just that I personally started feeling better to buy some stuff second hand, if we want to try 1st time than buying new. Movie and music records are my favourite second hand things. As my choice I will never buy any personal second hand item for hygene reason but I would love to find some antique or decorative artistic items in such markets at a good price.

Few days back I had a stall at this Dubai Flea market along with my friends. A week before the market we organised all our unwanted stuff (items stricktly in good condition) and decided prices (as low as possible). I am purposely specifying items which we sold in this market, Kid's toys, shoes, bags, elctronics/electrical appliances, utensiles, clothes, lamps, books, movies, jwellery, accessaries.

The response was very good. Many taxi drivers, workers bought many items from us in very cheap rate. Our intent for this market was not earning money. But we wanted to sincerely get rid of our unwanted but good stuff in return of some small amout. As example, selling our unwanted branded shirts at 5dhs was definitely a win-win situation for both seller and buyer. By profession none of us sold anything, but selling our stuff in this market was a great fun. Sometimes we also gave away stuff like that. The market was huge with hundreds of stalls under the trees in Safa park and there was a big crowd to buy stuff since early morning.
The second hand flea market was very good, no guilt, sustainable business. You get satisfaction by sort of recycling your stuff by selling it somebody for low cost. And the buyers are happy to find good affordable deals and they reuse your unwanted stuff happily.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Before the weather gets hotter here, few weeks back we camped on one of the pristine beach in Oman on Musandum side. I have written before about the same scienic journey from Ras Al Khaima to Musandum. There is clean blue arabian gulf on one side of the road and mountains on other side, the road is artistically curvey. This time we did not go upto Musandum, we drove upto just before Khasab inspecting each and every beach on the way. Many beaches were already occupied leaving no space for us to camp. So finally after sunset we settled with our tent on a beach after Bukha.

A walk with bare feet on beach, with waves washing our feet and taking sand beneath it; was very soothening.

We lit up our barbeque with least possible fuel and lot of hand excercise to provide enough wind for lit coal to lit up surrounding coals. The smell of barbeque worked as apetizer for us, I love the food cooked on coal. After our very tasty dinner on beach next to our tent, we relaxed and watched the stars and heard the wind and sea. Apart from street lights it was very dark, seeing bright stars in this away from city area is an experience. It is fantastic how our sky looks diffrent every hours in night, the locations of stars change and rising of next stars. And then suddenly we saw our favorite arabian fox swiftly passing on beach, definitely looking for his pray. The mountians are so close to beach that for these nocternal aminals who stay in mountains it is very easy to climb down the moutains and look for food either fish or turtle eggs etc on beach. The fox was looking white in dark, but with it's unique long ears and long brushy tale it was easy to recognise them. Of course not to forget we have experience of seeing them in same area previously :).

These foxes are so quick and calm that we never hear any sound as they come and they pass swiftly so again this time we could not capture them in our camera. But the experince was thrilling for us. With this encounter of wild life we went to sleep happily in our tent. We had finished all our food and had only some fruits in basket left outside or tent, we did not realized that it may attract some animals (or wild animals)!

It is very tranquil to sleep right next to sea. The continuous sound of waves and breeze coming from sea makes perfect atmosphere for sleeping under stars.
During late night I suddenly woke up as I felt something near to me from outside of the tent, when I opened my eyes and looked around, I could see silhouette of those long ears and face on tent just near my head! It was annoying, I hurried woke my husband up and shouted on the fox, who was just next to me, but outside the tent. My huband quickly went outside the tent, but couldn't see anything. He did not belive me that there was a fox outside our tent and he almost laughed seeing me annoyed. Of course I know foxes don't harm humans but it was scary for me to feel the fox and seeing his shadow next to my head.

My husband went to sleep immediately saying it must be a dream. I told him we'll check the pugmarks in morning and went to sleep. After some time or may be hours again I felt the fox outside the tent near my face, so this time I woke up my husband and just asked him to look at the shadow. When he saw it he agreed and told me (and himself) not to fear. We watched the shadow, without making any movement or sound for around 20/30 seconds and then the fox ran away swiftly. I thought is it fruit basket attracting foxes? but we agreed that foxes don't eat fruits and we went back to the tranquil sleep again.

First thing in morning, we opened the front cover of tent and watched the sea and next thing, my husband got the camera and started taking photos of pugmarks of foxes. The pugmarks were concentracted more on the side of tent near my head (lol? do foxes like hair or smell of my shampoo?). We also found out the fruits from basket were on floor and one apple and one banana were missing. So guys, let me announce Blanford's fox eat apple and banana :D!

These foxes are frequently seen in mountains of UAE, Oman and the region. But for us they are still wild animals, as we don't get to see them anywhere near Dubai/Abu Dhabi or cities in UAE. This part of Oman is not developed and commercialised so it is a perfect place for eco-tourism and camping. Everytime we come here we get to see some beatiful arabian wild life.

We enjoyed the sea and water for a while and looked for some natural souvineer from the place. On these beaches surprisingly pabeles are carried with water to shores along with shells. The varied color of pables and shells red, yellow, brown, green is definite indication that this region is mineral rich.

We found some small colourful fish just brought with wave on shores.

We saw many types of jelly fish on beach. Not just dead but lot of live jelly fish we found, so we decided not to swim.
Some jelly fish were looking like yellow rubber/plastic tiny baloons. This jelly fish with eye was breathing, so we lifted these live jellyfish and threw them back to sea.

I also came across a very unique phenomenon on the beach. There was hole digged on the beach and all the dug sand was piled up at some distance from the whole. There were markes indicating path of that piled sand from hole. I did not understand what it is, but felt like it must some crab or something who might be doing this. Please let me know if you know about this phenomenon.

On the way back we took a stop near marshy land in Bukha. This place is a good spot to watch birds. We could spot only these black headed Common Tern this time. The beach where we camped, we also found red backed shrike.

These tiny yellow flowers on wild natural shrub on beach drew my attention. This plant must be saline water plant and looking at these beautiful flowers, I felt why these kind of plants are not used widely as landscape plants? Lot of potable water, which is otherwise used for irrigation of landscapes in region could be saved, if saline water plants are used for this purpose.

Camping in wild definitely is very refreshing, soothening as well as thrilling. There must be very few activities which can provide this all. But everytime we enjoy wild nature, we need to make sure that we are not disturbing the nature and not leaving our trace in form of garbage or anything else. When I thought about the incident of night and how I shouted as first reaction. Did I scare that fox as well? But definitely not or else it wouldn't have returned again. If the fox was scared by my loud shout (!) it would have run to it's cave home in mountains and stayed hungry for at least that night; but instead the fox decided to have our apple and banana for dinner that night!

Monday, April 23, 2012

Hello everyone, I had a very good Earth Day yersterday. Watched 'One Day on Earth' which gave message of world peace, world culture, family values and environment awareness. But I am more happy as I adopted a Turtle yesterday! Not only awareness discussions but actions counts!
So here I am telling you story of MarineTurtle Conservation project which was launched by Emirates Wildlife Society in association with WWF in 2010.

Two out of the seven species of marine turtles, the Hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) and the Green turtle (Chelonia mydas), occur in Gulf waters. Worldwide, the IUCN Red List (IUCN2008) lists the hawksbill turtle as critically endangered and the green turtle as endangered. At the local and regional level the stocks of these species are threatened and the number of foraging habitats and nesting grounds are continually declining.

Turtles can get entangled in fishing nets, and even swim into fish traps from which they can’t escape. They are also impacted by habitat loss, and as more and more beaches get developed, less and less area is available for nesting. Oil spills which wash up on beaches pose a hazard to emerging hatchlings, and boat strikes from the ever-increasing maritime traffic also take their toll. Topping all of this is climate change, and the Gulf’s cold winters leave dozens, if not hundreds, of turtles cold-stunned. When these turtles sit on the bottom to conserve energy (they are cold blooded and cannot really control their inner body temperature), they get covered in barnacles to the point they can barely swim or feed.

Hawksbill turtle is a small, beautifully adorned turtle with intricate shell designs. This feature has made it widely sought after for centuries, by artisans who wanted to use it to make jewellery. Massive trade in earlier days brought many hawksbill populations to near extinction

Focusing its attention on the critically endangered Hawksbill (IUCN Red Listed), the project will monitor up to 75 post-nesting female turtles from the region using satellite tracking. Till now they have tracked 20 post-nesting hawksbill turtles in UAE, Oman, Qatar, and Iran.

These turtles live all their life in sea except when they lay eggs, they travel to land and nest there. Turtles depend on coastal habitats, including coral reefs for feeding and beaches for nesting, and this project will help in identifying these key areas throughout the region. EWS-WWF engaged with other Gulf countries and have formed valuable partnerships.

Through this project they are trying to achieve following goals,
1. understand the post-nesting migrations and biology of marine turtles using satellite tracking;
2. Identify the foraging grounds of endangered marine turtles and linkages between nesting and feeding population assemblages;
3. Share tracking data and findings to relevant authorities and contribute to the development of a regional marine turtle conservation plan;
4. Integrate these conservation initiatives within international conservation agreements on marine turtles and national programmes.

EWS-WWF started turtle adoption scheme to increase public interest and awareness.As EWS-WWF is non profit organisation, their environmental conservation projects are run on donation provided by indivisulas and organsations.
Once you adopt a turtle, you get a turtle adoption pack along with certificate and cudly toy turtle 'Nadia'. The best part about this project is Turtle tracking, you could see on their website (http://www.gulfturtles.com/) where all these tagged 20 turtles roamed in arabian gulf. The tagging of course is painless and harmless to these endangered turtles.

The most amazing featured I loved about this project is The Great Gulf Turtle Race. In 2011 the race was a huge success with the tagged turtles clocking up hundreds of kilometres across the region to be crowned furthest travelled turtle. 'Speedy' turtle (tagged in Iran in 2011 at a new nesting site) who romped home as the winner of the Great Gulf Turtle Race 2011, swimming 133kms further than anyone other turtle in the race! The Great Gulf Turtle Race will return once again in 2012 and their turtle tagging team are currently gearing up for this year’s nesting season across the region.

I am sure you will definitely be interested in this project. You can proudly adopt a turtle like me or may be gift it to someone or can go to their website and know more about Turtle facts, tracking and related fun things. Don't forget to show youngsters in your family while you browse through gulfturtles.com.

And finally most important, while you are on beach, if you come across any Marine Emergancy please contact below authorities so that they can help marine species.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

My Earth day started like any other day of the year. Like everyday I stood in my window just after I woke up to catch the glimpse of the morning glory! On way to my work, while stuck in traffic on single road of my landscaped community, watched few happy chirping birds and sunny tree tops waving bye to me. And repeated same sentence to me, "I like Mornings".

On this Earth in true sense not just a morning but every moment is beautiful. The Nature changes it's beauty from morning to night, all we need is to take time out to appreciate it's beauty. But at least on Earth day, we all celebrate the beauty of Earth and remind ourselves what we should do to stop deteriorate the balance on Earth.

My Earth day celebration this time will be again with WWF-EWS. They are screening "One Day on the Earth" movie in the evening, which I'll watch with fellow environment enthusiast. Today it will be global screening of this movie, which is shot in community in every country of the world on 1.1.2010!
I am quite excited to watch this movie and sure will enjoy like all other movies screened by EWS before.

This year amongst other Earth day celebration in UAE, I found out two very unique and interesting news.
National Geographic Abu Dhabi collaborated with Volunteers in Dubai hosted 'Bag the Waste' yesterday evening. Volunteers at the event turned discarded newspaper into paper bags, which were then distributed to local grocery stores to replace environmentally harmful plastic bags.

In other unique initiative in Sharjah, 10 Reverse Vending Machines (RVMs) will be launched under the city's myBeeah recycling rewards campaign. The machines, which will be installed at high-footfall locations like Al Majaz Park and Al Qasba, accept plastic bottles and aluminium cans and award a point for every deposit, which can later be redeemed. An online portal, www.myBeeah.ae, will also be launched today, allowing people to sign up for the loyalty programme and avail of rewards for their recycling efforts. Points can be used to avail of discounts and prizes from participating venues and outlets.

I personally appreciate this initiative by Beeah, as this initiative will definitely motivate residents and accelerate the recycling quantity from domestics.

I would urge all my readers and friends staying in Sharjah to sign up on myBeeah.ae and start regular recycling to get awarded.

Hopefully similar reverse vending machines will be launched in Dubai, Abu dhabi and other Emirates, where residents will welcome them and will be interested more in recycling than before thanks to rewards.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

When I started writing this blog back in 2009 and I started my individual campaign to make people aware of effects of global warming and ideas of Green Living even few years before 2009 I always found people in large number who didn't believe in all this.

During my engineering graduation, when I decided to prepare an academic seminar for my final year based on energy efficiency and conservation, my professors discouraged me not to select this topic as it lacks practicality and is not a business case! When on my trip home few years back I meet one of same professors and told now I am working in the field of sustainable development/green buildings, all he said was, it's just a fad, don't spoil your career!

In social discussions many people used to react not in favor of sustainability or even used to make their point saying ' since thousand years climate on the Earth is changing and why to make big fuss now'. Though I used to try my best to convince them that natural change in climate because the Earth was cooling down was different and now the climate is changing because of man-made reasons like industrialization, pollution and undesirable loads on natural resources.

Some people used to be so sure about hype of Global warming and climate change that they used to make fun of it and kept themselves completely shut off from the pros and cons

Even in recent years while changing the work flow and delivery methods in my organizations to achieve compliance for construction of Green buildings, most of my colleagues were not in favor of my work, no suprise. These people's favorite quote about Green Buildings/ sustainability was always "It's a money making business".

But in recent past many environmental disasters happened; to name few...Unusual Rains in Mumbai, India; Repeated and disastrous cyclones and hurricanes in USA; Record high Cold Wave in Europe; Frequent and destructive Floods in Australia; Tsunami in East Asia; Drought in China; Wild fires Mexico and Australia and Nonstop news of melting polar ice caps, increase in sea levels, change in weather patterns all over the world.

Also some big events happened in field of environmental awareness or to curb effect of climate change to name few; UNFCC's Kyoto protocol; Nobel prize to UN and Al Gore; UN Climate petition between countries at Copenhagen, Durban; Discussion of carbon tax

Some great movies like Wall-e and (not so great movies like 2012); documentaries like An inconvenient Truth, The story of stuff and such made people think about the issue while entertaining them.

Theses repeated environmental events; bombardment of effect of climate change/Global warming through media (TV channels/ Newspapers/ Internet) and increased Political interest in this topic made people realized that Global warming and Climate change is happening and not just a fad/hype or new trend to misguide the world'.

Now out of above list there is big question that Political interest in this issue is making difference on world politics or environment? And media or entertainment businesses always look for where is higher demand else they won't produce shows or news just for good cause and loose money. But overall effect of all this is good on environmental awareness somehow.

The best examples I have seen are some people changing their minds about Global warming when their children started learning this in schools and their schools asked them to participate in environmental projects.

I would say, it is always better to target that future generation (children) to spread the awareness and teach Green living so that those notorious adults, who have not yet convinced will start realizing at least out of shame.

From what I get to see in multicultural and multinational social sphere in UAE and visits to some other places, I could say I see change!

There is definitely a wide acceptance of adverse effect of Global warming/Climate change in people now than back in 2000's. So much is the change that the people who were strong critics of these real time issues have become now ambassadors of awareness of effect of Global warming and climate change. They now understood how every action of each individual can affect this most important issue of our time.

All in all I could conclude when people are getting aware of issue, it is the first step. The next will be they will start doing their bit to save our mother Earth for our future generations. So it is still a long way to reach that goal of Sustainable Planet!

And if a new reader will think okay you talked a lot about the first step "awareness", but what about next steps which are more important. Then don't think why governments not doing anything about it or what people will say if I save water/petrol by going extra mile. Just browse through this blog or internet, one can find numerous life style changes, which we all can do to curb climate change. Or go back to roots, culture, traditions to find eco-friendly tips. Green living is nothing but a natural way of human being to live, cutting extras and using necessary resources in efficient ways!

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Happy New Year 2012!Every year we all make new year resolutions. Since years I am adding enevironmental awareness & achieving Green/Eco-friendly lifestyle in the list of my new year resolutions.

Last year I opted for raw vegan food as much as possible. I reduced my weight (!) & saved lot of LPG for cooking & cooking oil than most of Indian people ;). Apart from jokes, this year I have decided to walk more & more and also use public transport whenever possible. Using less water for household is continued from last year. Saving electricity by not using AC in winter at home & office is ongoing. And using daylight and not switching on lights during daytime (specially in office) is also carried forward from last year, Thanks to my colleagues as they don't object!

Last year very sucessfully I kept on avoid printing papers in office & whenever needed I printed on both sides. I tried my best to implement paper recycling in my previous office. I feel good when I see those filled paper recycling boxes whenever I visit my previous office. But now I need to recycle papers in my new office this year!

Getting rid of some unnecessary things (clothes/shoes/medicines etc) at home by giving them to charity is still pending from last year's list of resolutions. And same is story with a very heavy paper luggage at home. We need to scan most of papers/notes & recycle them.

New addition to my resolutions list is, try to save petrol when I am waiting at signal or petrol pump! If switching off the engine is not possible then at least changing gear to neutral will save some petrol for sure. I will also organize my hard disc & throw unnecessary digital stuff to recycle bin, as I don't want to buy a new hard disc. (which will save some of my carbon footprints!)

One more thing I will start this year, to buy vegetables & keep them in one plastic bag instead of using sperate bag for each veggie & fruits.

But this year, Nandan , my husband is definitely being more creative at New year's Green resolutions. What he did is, firstly he changed his mobile's screen as a black screen. By doing this his mobile battery life increased & he doesn't have to charge his mobile every now & then.

He also selected a power saver mode on his mobile. Overall effect of all his efforts is longer battery time. Though one might think how much electricity could be saved by doing these changes in your mobile and definitely this is micro energy saving. But we need to think what if my husband continue to follow his new year resolution till end of this year or what if some more people join him to save their mobile battery charge. Then definitely considerable electricity could be saved!

The inference is, if we can not stop using technologies (specially electronics), which are adding big amount of carbon footprint to date, then at least we can try using these technologies smartly. So that at least we can save some resources!

Guys all the very best to you to fulfill your new year resolution & my request is to add some Green resolutions to your list and let me know about them!